Puppy coat
Wheaten terrier is a late maturing dog race. The standard says that the maturity age of Wheatens is about 21/2 years. It also applies to the coat development which is widely debated within the standard. The coat of the young dogs is described in detail as: reddish, greyish or light wheaten rarely having the right texture and colour.
The standard describes black mask, black streak down the centre of the back or black tips to the body coat. It is prerequisite and typical for the young dog at an age when leaving the breeder to have rough coat with black tips following the outline of the dog. Its coat could also be rusty, ruffled and disordered.
The change of Wheaten from hard-coated pup, through a shaggy pubescent dog with almost no coat at all, to a beautiful individual with a shiny wavy and wheaten coat is amazing. The changes are individual and depend on genetical disposition taken after their parents. The time would fly and you would run across this stage of development truly fast and, all of a sudden, your Wheaten will have grown into a beautiful individual.
in this picture you can see developing of Wheaten coat from puppy harsh coat in four month puppy (middle), through silky, but not density coat in 10 months to adult wheaten coat in four years old male, who sits on the very right.
Unfortunately not all Wheatens do have original shiny, wavy coat. You can see also Wheatens with fluffy, streight, outstanding coat of different colours. The coat looks more like a teddy bear. This kind of puppies might look nice to someone. This coat type is not according to breed standard and does not show original Irish Wheaten, the antient breed, Irish heritage.
Coat of this truly untypical puppy you can see in the picture.
